The bodies were
discovered shortly before 6 p.m. at the office of defense attorney Carl A. “Tony” Capozzola
when officers responded to a 911 call of gunshots fired, Grimm said. Capozzola,
who was interviewed by detectives, witnessed the shooting but was not wounded,
detectives explained.

Capozzola did not return
a MetNews phone call. Another attorney who worked in the suite, Mark
Haushalter, described the shooting to a reporter for the Daily Breeze of
Torrance.

Shooting Described

“I heard about six
shots, then a loud thump, as if something big had hit the floor,” he said. “I
grabbed the other attorney in the room with me and ducked under the conference
table. When I saw someone running down the hallway, I made a break for it.”

Haushalter’s partner,
Ryan Okabe, said he also heard the shots.

“I thought it was
someone fooling around with a cap gun until I smelled the gun powder,” Okabe
told the newspaper.

“This place wasn’t like
most law offices,” the 27-year-old added. “It was a very lighthearted place. I
can’t imagine anyone in this office being angry or disgruntled enough to do
something like this.”

A call to Scotti’s Beverly Hills office was taken by an
answering service and not returned.

Scotti was a graduate of
the University of LaVerne College of Law and had been an attorney since 1985.

DEA Agent

Attorneys who knew him
described him as likeable. They said he attended law school while working as a
Drug Enforcement Administration agent and became “persona non grata” at the
agency after testifying as a subpoenaed defense witness in the trial of
automaker John DeLorean.

His “adverse witness”
testimony about some of the actions of his colleagues “corroborated our theory
that DeLorean was set up by the government,” defense attorney Howard Weitzman
said.

Among Scotti’s clients
was Francisco (Pancho Villa) Martinez, sentenced to life in prison plus 60 years last month on
federal racketeering charges. Martinez, prosecutors said, ran the Columbia Li’l Cycos gang from a
prison cell, controlling drug trafficking in MacArthurPark.

Other clients included
convicted celebrity madam Jody “Babydol’’ Gibson; Sandy Murphy, convicted three
years ago of helping kill her live-in boyfriend, wealthy Las Vegas casino owner
Ted Binion; and Kambiz Maleki, a construction executive acquitted after four
trials of trying to bribe an inspector for the Los Angeles Unified School
District.